Mile Repeats Today

Today I ran eight miles, including 3 x 1600 meters (1 mile) repeats at 5K race pace. I was not looking forward to this run. I've been doing excellent at getting in my scheduled mileage and at logging the marathon pace runs. However, the faster repeats have been tough for me during this training cycle. I've completed them, but they've been harder than it seems like they should be.

Anyway, I did what I could to prepare for today's run, which mainly consisted of hydrating and running at a recovery pace during yesterday's five mile run. I ran yesterday without a watch so that I wouldn't be tempted to chase any arbitrary time goal.

Today's run started okay, and I completed the first repeat without much trouble. The second and third repeats were much tougher, partially because I had already run a hard mile and partially because I was running into a slight wind. Earlier today I read on Zeke's blog about the mental side of training. When my run got tough during the second and third repeats I started thinking about the power of the mind and how it can either limit our performance or help it. It may sound hokey, but these thoughts gave me extra strength and allowed me not only reach my goal times for each of these repeats but to finish each repeat strong. I only wish I had read worked on developing the mental side of training earlier. During the last ten days of the taper isn't the time to start training hard to challenge the mind and body.